I've been caught in a fairly major wave while body surfing the southeastern coast of Oahu. It was like being in a giant washing machine. And letting the wave pass was almost not enough. Just as I was running out of air, I made the surface, only to be pushed down by another wave. I almost died that day. Don't believe me? You should have seen the look on the lifeguards face when he got to me. I was standing in a foot of water with my swimming trunks around one ankle.
That wave was a tiny fraction of the power in the waves - no, make that "WALL OF WATER" - in these pictures. These people don't have a chance, outside the grace of God.
"These people don't have a chance, outside the grace of God."
Of course they had a chance. The trick to surviving waves of any size is either getting over them or under them. The killing zone is the impact zone between water and land.
Surfers regularly surf waves 15 to 20 ft. or higher. They are able to do this by avoiding the impact zone by diving under it. People on land can avoid the impact zone by running to higher ground, going over the impact zone.
Bad luck determined the fate of many of those who died, but many more could have saved themselves with a little knowledge and quick thinking.
I can relate.
I was body surfing in Daytona FL.
I thought, "nice surf, bigger than normal waves, this should be fun." I too ended up with a swimsuit around my ankles and lots of seawater in my nostrils and stomach.
I remember rolling and rolling, head over feet and thinking it would slam me head first into the sea bed and I would be a quadriplegic when it was all over. And that wave was nothing compared to the waves in Hawaii.